Articles

Are Software Solutions the Future of Sourcing?

This year has been a historic one for global sourcing and manufacturing, the kind that will eventually be acknowledged widely as an industry changing inflection point. Following the tragedy of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, relentless media attention has fixated on sourcing to less developed nations like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. Social compliance, once merely a footnote, has become a major political and humanitarian issue.

Also, sourcing and product development have become key drivers behind a product’s price, quality and speed to market. Consumers have become sensitive to the origins of the products they purchase, and question if their creation was environmentally sustainable or if the labor conditions that generated them were safe and humane. No longer an afterthought, the back end of the supply chain has become just as important as front-end fashion, intensifying the search for more efficient, and more ethical, sourcing solutions. Read More...